Midnight

More, she could even see the star bal . She’d feared –

among other things – that it might be up too high to climb, that it might be so entangled with roots or branches that today, certainly after hundreds or even thousands of years, it would be impossible to chop out. But there it was, the greatest star bal that had ever been, ful y the size of a beach bal , and it nestled freely in the first crutch of the tree.

Her mind was racing ahead. They’d done it; they’d found the star bal . But how much time would it take to get it back to where Sage was? Automatical y, she glanced at her compass and saw to her surprise that the needle now pointed southwest – in other words, back to the Gatehouse.

That was a thoughtful touch of Sage’s. And perhaps they didn’t have to go through the trials backward; they could simply use their Master Key to go back to Fel ‘s Church, and then…Well, Mrs. Flowers would know what to do with it.

If it came to that, maybe they could just blackmail Her, whoever She was, to go away forever in exchange for the star bal . Although – could they live with the thought that she might do this again – and again – and again to other towns?

Even as she planned, Elena watched the expressions of her comrades: the childlike wonder on Bonnie’s heart-shaped face; the keen assessment in Stefan’s eyes; Damon’s dangerous smile.

They were viewing their hard-won reward, at last.

But she couldn’t look for too long. Things had to be done.

Even as they watched, the star bal brightened, showing such bril iant, incandescent colors that Elena was half-blinded.

She shielded her eyes just as she heard Bonnie inhaling sharply.

"What?"Stefan asked, a hand in front of his eyes, which, of course were much more sensitive to light than human eyes.

"Someone’s using it right now!"Bonnie replied. "When it went bright like that, it sent out Power! A long, long way out!"

"Things are heating up in what’s left of poor old Fel ‘s Church,"said Damon, who was staring intently upward at the branches above him.

"Don’t talk about it like that!"Bonnie exclaimed. "It’s our home. And now we can final y defend it!"Elena could practical y see what Bonnie was thinking: families embracing; neighbors smiling at neighbors again; the entire town working to fix the destruction.

This is how great tragedies sometimes happen. People with a single goal, yet who are not in sync. Assumptions.

Presumptions. And, maybe, most important of al , the failure to sit down and talk.

Stefan tried, even though Elena could see that he was Stillblind from the bril iance of the star bal . He said quietly, "Let’s talk this over for a while and brainstorm ways to get it – "

But Bonnie was laughing at him, though not unkindly. She said, "I can get up there as fast as a squirrel. Al I need is someone strong to catch it when I knock it down. I know I can’t climb down with it; I’m not that sil y. Come on, you guys, let’s go!"

That’s how it happened. Different personalities, different modes of thinking. And one laughing, light-headed girl, who didn’t have a precognition when it was needed.

Elena, who was envying Meredith the fighting stave, didn’t even see the beginning. She was watching Stefan, who was blinking rapidly to get his eyesight back.

And Bonnie was scrambling as lightly as she had boasted, up on top of the dead tree branch that sheltered them. She even gave them a little laughing salute just before she leaped into the barren, sparkling circle around the tree.

Then microseconds stretched infinitely. Elena felt her eyes slowly getting wider, even though she knew they were flying open. She saw Stefan leisurely reach across her to try to twine his fingers around Bonnie’s leg, even though she knew that what she was seeing was a lightning-fast grab for the petite girl’s ankle. She even heard Damon’s instantaneous telepathy: No, little fool! as if he were speaking the words in his accustomed lazy tones of superiority.

Then, Stillin slow motion, Bonnie’s knees bent and she launched into the air above the circle.

But she never touched the ground. Somehow, a black streak, stunningly fast even in the slow-motion horror film that Elena was watching, landed where Bonnie would have landed. And then Bonnie was being thrown, being hurled too fast for Elena’s eyes to track, outside of the barren circle and then there was a dul thud – too fast for Elena’s mind to track as being Bonnie’s landing.

Quite clearly, she heard Stefan cry "Damon!"in a terrible voice. And then Elena saw the thin dark objects – like curving lances – that were already shooting downward. Another thing her eyes couldn’t fol ow. When her vision adjusted, she saw that they were long, curved black branches, spaced evenly around the tree like thirty spider legs, thirty long spears that were meant to either imprison someone inside them like the bars of a cel , or to – pin them into the strange sand beneath her feet.

"Pin"was a good word. Elena liked the sound of it. Even as she was staring at the sharp recurved barbs on the branches, meant to keep anything caught by them held permanently in the ground, she was thinking of Damon’s annoyance if a shaft had pierced his leather jacket. He would curse at them, and Bonnie would try to pretend he hadn’t – and…

She was close enough by now to see that it wasn’t as simple as that. The branch, which was proper javelin size, had gone through Damon’s shoulder, which must hurt like hel , in addition to having splattered a blood drop right at the corner of his mouth. But far more annoying than that was the fact that he had closed his eyes against her. That was how Elena thought of it. He was shutting them out deliberately – maybe because he was angry; maybe because of the pain in his shoulder. But it reminded her of the steel wal feeling she’d gotten the last time she’d tried to touch his mind – and, damn, couldn’t he tell he was scaring them?